Corn-harvesting machine



CORN HARVESTING MACHINE Filed May 14 1923 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Gitane@ .s

Oct- 13, l925- F. W. BENNEFELD com: HARVESTING MACHINE Filed May 14 19233 Sheets-Sheet 3 anonimi PATENT oFFlcE.

FRED W. BENNEFE'LD, 0F GIRARD, KANSAS.

COBN-HABVESTING MACHINE.

Application led lay 14, 1923. Serial No. 838.900.

To all lwhom it may concern.:

Be it known that I, Fnnn W. BENNEFELD, a citizen of the United States,residing at Route #6, Girard, in the county of Crawford and State ofKansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inCorn-Harvesting Machines, vof which the following is a specification,reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to a corn harvesting machine and has for itsobject to provide an improved device of this character adapted to severthe standing stalks with the ears thereon; deposit said stalks in theproper position upon a feed elevator; conduct said stalks and ears tosnapping rolls by which the ears are snapped from the stalks; chop thestalks into relativel small pieces and discharge them upon t .e ground;deliver the ears/with the husks thereon to husking rolls which removethe husks from the ears of corn and then deliver the husked ears to adischarge elevator by which they may be discharged into a wagon or likereceptacle uring the travel of the machine.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a machine capable ofca-r ing out the foregoing objects and wherein t e travel of the corn,though under the influence of gravity during part of its travel, ismaintained effectively throughout the varying inclinations assumed bythe machine, as a whole, in traveling over hilly and rough ground.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved mechanismfor insuring that the stalks with the ears thereon will be delivered tothe feed elevator in such manner that they will travel head first andthus be delivered to the snapping rolls in such position as to insurethat the ears will be sna pcd therefrom with efficiency and dis atch.

urther objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in thedetailed description which follows.

In the accompanying drawings: Fi 1 is a plan view of a corn harvestingmachme constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation thereof; Fig. 2a is a detail view of thefront end of the machine;

Fig. 3 is a detail view of a chopping knife hereinafter described;

Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of the machine;

chine drawn by horse power, it is to be understood that it is within thescope of the4 invention to mount a gasoline engine or other type ofmotor on the machine and to propel the same thereby,these two methods ofpropelling agricultural machine .being now well recognized as the equivaents of each other.` Any suitable means of propelling the several partsof the mechanism from the ground wheels maybe employed, that shown inthe present instance for the purpose of illustrating the principles ofthe invention comprising a clutch 13 which serves to clutch the groundwheel 7 to a sprocket wheel 14 when an operating handle 15 ismanipulated from the drivers seat 16. The sprocket wheel 14 drivesthrough a chain 17 to a transverse shaft 18 supported in frame members5'l and this transverse shaft 18 constitutes From this main drive shaft18 a sickle or cutter bar 19 of a well knowny and conventional form isoperated through the medium of a pitman 20, crank disc 21, inclinedshaft 22 and beveled gearing 23, the latter meshing with a beveled gear24 on the shaft 18.

The shaft 22 drives bybeveled gears 25 and 26 to a transverse 'shaft 27.This transverse shaft, through the medium of beveled gearing 28 operatesvert-ical shafts 29 and 30. Upper sprocket chains 31 are driven fromthese vertical shafts by. a sprocket wheel 32 and lower sprocket chains33 are driven from these vertical shafts by sprocket wheels 34. Theupper sprocket vchains 31 pass over idle sproc ets 35 and 36 and thelower sprocket chains Y 33 pass over idle sprockets 37 at their forwardends.l The lower sprocket chains 33 and those portions of the uppersprocket chains which lie forwardly of the sprocket wheels 32 aredivergent and serve to guide the standing stalks to the sickle 19.

the main drive shaft of the machine.

The upper ends of the vertical shafts 29 and 30 are connected buniversal joints 38 and 39 with inclin shafts 40. These shafts operatesprocket wheels 41 and 42 which, in turn, operate sprocket chains 43 and44, the lower ends of the latter passing over idle sprocket wheels 45and 46. The forward divergent or rearwardly convergent chains ther thestanding stalks as stated and direct them to the sickle which seversthem and the inclined chains 43 and 44 insure that these stalks will becarried i head end foremost upon an upwardly traveling feed conveyor 47.This conveyor consists of chains 48 and transverse slats 49, said slatstraveling over a floor or plate 50 which is provided for a portion ofits length with upstanding guides 51 and which iioor terminates at 50".The chains 48 of the conveyor 47 pass over sprocket wheels 52 upon ashaft 53. This s left 1s driven by sprocket gearing 55' rom thc shaft ofupper sna :pin roll 55 A lower snapping roll 54 is driven by sprocketgearing 53'L from the shaft 53. The upper snafpping roll is driven bysprocket gearing 56 rom shaft 18.

' The lower portions of the sprocket chains 48 of the feed conveyor passover sprocket wheels 57 upon a transverse shaft 58.

The ascending stalks'with the ears thereon are conducted by the feedconveyor 47 to the upper andlower sna ping rolls 55 and 54 between whichthe sta ks are carried.

The ears are snapped off from the stalks and fall into a chute 59 bwhich they are delivered to the husking ro l assembly,I hereinafterdescribed.

These stalks freed of the ears are carried through the snapping rolls bythe movement of these rolls to a chopping mechanism consisting of avertically reciprocatin knife 61. This knife coacts with a iirv cutterbar 62 carried b rigid frame members 63. A crank sha t 64 to whichrotation is imparted through sprocket gearing 65 from the shaft of theupper snapping `roll, actuates a pitman oke 66. The upper portion ofthis yoke pivotally engages upstanding arms 67 uponv knife 61. The knifeis further guided upon guide rods 68 which are carried by the bar 62..As the knife is vertically reciprocated under the influence of the crankshaft 64 and associated parts, these stalks are chopped into relativelysmall pieces and ldischarged upon the ground at the rear of the machine.

In the meantime the ears which have been delivered to the husking rollassembly 60 are caused to travel downwardly and rearwardly over thehusking rolls 69. These husking rolls ma be of any desired number andare pre erably arranged in pairs, as illustrated. in Fi 1. These rollsare mounted in a tiltab e frame 70 and this frame preferably carries abaille or deflector bar 71 by which the ears with the husks thereon aredeflected toward the4 pairs of husking rolls. The forward end of thelframe 0 is supported upon the shaft 18 and the inclination of the frameand conse quently the inclination of the whole husking roll assembly maybe varied through the'medium ofa yoke 72 and an operatingv handle 73.This handle is pivoted at 74 and is accessible from'the drivers seat 16.It is preferabl provided with a latch and segment 75 an 76 of a Wellknown and conventional form and the function of the handle and yoke isto var the inclination of the husking roll assem ly with respect to themain frame of the machine so that the proper inclination of the huskingroll assembly may be maintained irres ective of the level of the groundover whic the machine istraveling. This isimportant in a constructionwhere the travel of the ears to be husked, along the husking rolls is.under the influence of gravity, since otherwise with the machinetraveling down hill the travel of the ears might cease entirely, whilethe machine traveling up hill the ears would slide along the rolls sofast that they would reach the discharge elevator before beingcompletely husked. The husking rolls are driven from shaft 18 by meansof the bevel lgear 24 and a bevel gear 77, said beveled ears meshingrespectively with bevel gears 8 and 79, each of which drives a pair ofthe husking rolls through the spur gears 80, Il and 81, 81.

The husked ears are discharged from the rear end of the husking rollassembly upon a discharge elevator consisting of a short horizontalportion 82 and a longer inclined portion 83 and this elevator serves todischar e the husked ears into a wagon which ma be driven alongside ofthe harvesting mac ine during the travel of the latter. The dischargeelevator is driven by bevel gearing 84 and a sprocket gearing 85 fromthe shaft 18.

I prefer to yieldably mount the lower snapping Vroll to accommodate thevarying sizes of stalks which pass between these snapping rolls and tothis end the shaft of this snapping roll is mounted in boxes 59'L whichare sprin rsupported by springs 59". The downwar yiel ing movement ofthe boxes 59 is limited by a set screw 59 whereby I am able to insurethat under no circumstances will rolls be forced far enough apart tojpermit the ears to pass therethrough.

ma if desired, provide the husking roll assemb y with a box which isopen at its ends above a screen 91 but closed below that point. Thespace below the screen 91 receives any corn which may be shelled in theoperation of husking.

In Fig. 2 I have illustrated the extreme front end of the frame membersof the machine from which it will be seen that these members compriseinclined`bars 5* which slip under any leaning stalks of corn, saidstalks sliding upward `along these inclined portions and beingl straihtened up until they are engaged by the cains before being severed bythe sickle. By virtue of this construction the stalks will be carriedback inas good shape as though they were standing upright when cut.

It is to be understood that the invention is nt limited to the preciseconstruction set forth but that it includes within its purview whateverchanges fairly come within4 either the terms or the spirit of theappended claims.

Having described my invention what I claim is: l

1. In a machine of the character described, the combination with awheeled sup'portin frame, of an inclined elevator, the lower en of whichterminates at the forward endof the machine, gathering mechanismdisposed at the opposite sides ofthe lelevator and at the front endthereof, and comprising two groups 0f chains, one upon each side of saidelevator, each group comprising three chains, two of the chains of agroup being substantially horizontal and one being located materi'allyabove the other, the latter chain being stepped rearwardly with respectto the former and said horizontal chains at the opposite sides of theelevator 'being forwardly divergent to present a flaring mouth, thethird. chains of the oups extendin and travelling substantial y at rightang es to the elevator, whereby the horizontal chains gather the stalksand deliver them to the elevator and the third chains carry the heads ofthe stalks downwardly upon the elevator to insure that the stalks willtravel head first up the elevator. v K p 2. A structure as recited inclaim 1 in combination with means for driving all of said chains inunison comprising horizontal sprocket wheels over which the horizontalchains travel, vertical driven shafts by which some of said sprocketwheels are carried, universal joints upon the upper ends of said shafts,inclined shafts connected to and driven by said universal joints andysprocket wheels carried by said inclined shafts and driving the thirdchains of the groups.

In testimony whereof I hereunto atlix my signature.

FRED W. BEN NEFELD.

